The President of the United States is tasked with being the leader of the entire country, including those who did not vote for him or her. Unlike Congress, where different viewpoints are represented in one body (even if only one party happens to be in control at any given time), a president is in office because his or her side won, and the other lost.

In lecterns in New Hampshire, town hall meetings in Iowa, and television studios inside the Beltway, candidates, pundits, and just about everyone else bemoan the growing polarization of the American electorate. As the political tectonic plates slowly shift, the seismic shocks cause the fault lines between red and blue to rent themselves even farther apart, while swing voters scramble so as not to fall into the widening gap. Surely, it can’t be as bad as all that!